Abstract
LONDON. Royal Astronomical Society, February 14.—Anniversary Meeting.—Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F. R.S., president, in the chair.—The secretaries read the annual report of the council, containing obituary notices of deceased fellows and associates, reports of the work of observatories in Great Britain and Ireland and the Colonies, and notes on the progress of astronomy during the past year.—The president announced that the council had awarded the Society's gold medal to Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, of Groningen, Holland, for his work in connection with the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung and his researches on stellar distribution and parallax. The president delivered an address, setting forth the grounds upon which the award had been made. The address dealt chiefly with Prof. Kapteyn's great work in measuring and reducing the stellar photographs taken at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, and in preparing the catalogue, which had been completed and published, forming three volumes of the Annals of the Cape Observatory. The actual photographing of the plates was begun by Dr. (now Sir David) Gill in 1886 and finished in 1890. Prof. Kapteyn spontaneously undertook the great work of measurement and reduction and the formation of the catalogue—a labour which occupied him more than twelve years. The catalogue contained 454, 875 stars down to about the 9.5 magnitude, from - 18° to the South Pole.—The president presented the gold medal to Prof. Kapteyn.—He also presented the Jackson-Gwilt bronze medal to the Rev. Thos. D. Anderson, for his discoveries of Nova Aurigæ and Nova Persei.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 65, 405–408 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065405a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065405a0